Enemies of Energy: Fred Stanback

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Enemies of Energy, a research report created for the Capital Research Center. The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy.

***

Donor type: direct grant maker

In 2014, according to the Los Angeles Times, a North Carolina billionaire named Fred Stanback gave $397 million to the Foundation for the Carolinas (FFTC). This was a hint that he was becoming one of America’s biggest donors to anti-energy advocates.^[i]

FFTC is a donor advised fund that redirects donor gifts to charitable priorities identified by the donors. Stanback’s priorities were explained in a 2018 Knoxville News report that described him as an “88-year old North Carolina heir to Stanback’s headache-powder fortune and known proponent of anti-humanist environmentalism. . .  the belief that protecting the environment hinges on population control.” ^[ii]

Donor advised funds are not required to explain where money comes from, only where it is sent. At a minimum, this makes it difficult to identify with precision where Stanback’s FFTC loot ended up. And tracking it to final sources would be almost impossible if Stanback were deliberately trying to use his FFTC account to remain anonymous.

But he is not. Stanback and his family members have been publicly identified as major donors to at least five of the fifteen anti-energy nonprofits profiled in this report.

The 2018 Knoxville News account covered three of them: ^[iii]

Stanback donates regularly to the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council. He also donated more than $50 million to another regional environmental group, the Southern Environmental Law Center…^[iv]

Additionally, in annual reports covering 2013 through 2025 the Rocky Mountain Institute has thanked Fred and Alice Stanback for giving $1 million or more each year (the highest donation category). Most of these reports also credit Stanback’s children and their spouses for gifts of at least $100,000. ^[v]

And in the 2014 annual report from the Center for Biological Diversity, Fred and Alice were thanked for giving $100,000 or more—also the highest giving category.^[vi]

While it is difficult to prove an exact total that the Stanbacks have sent through FFTC, circumstantial evidence indicates the total may be north of $700 million.

How do we know?

The Foundation for the Carolinas is a community foundation, which means it manages donations for more than 3,000 individual donors, most of whom are affiliated with the North Carolina region.^[vii]

The total giving from other community foundations broadly reflects the diverse charitable interests of the donors in that community. Representing the immense wealth and left-wing ideology of California’s Bay Area, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a good example. A Foundation Search report for the top recipients of SVCF donations since 2016 reveals that none of the fifteen major anti-energy nonprofits were among the top 100 to receive donations. The first to appear, way down in 120^th place, was the Environmental Defense Fund with $23.4 million in cumulative donations from SVCF accounts. ^[viii]

Alternatively, the Foundation for the Carolinas has a set of priorities that looks a lot more like a major anti-energy donor has been sending in a lot of loot.

A comparable Foundation Search report for FFTC donations since 2016 reveals that eleven of the fifteen major anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report were ranked within the top 100 recipients. Six were in the top ten. Also among the top twenty was a local affiliate of the League of Conservation Voters. The number one recipient on the whole FFTF list was the Southern Environmental Law Center—already identified as a big Stanback favorite. ^[ix]

Consistent with this, the most recent IRS report filed by FFTC, covering grants from 2024, shows nine of the fifteen anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report receiving at least $1 million each. Under the likely assumption that most (or nearly all) of this is from the Stanback fortune, then the cumulative total just for 2024 was $71.8 million: ^[x]

• Southern Environmental Law Center: $26.5 million
• League of Conservation Voters Education Fund: $20 million
• Rocky Mountain Institute: $12.2 million
• Natural Resources Defense Council: $6 million
• Environmental Defense Fund: $2 million
• Center for Biological Diversity: $2 million
• Greenpeace Fund: $1 million
• Sierra Club Foundation: $1 million
• Union of Concerned Scientists: $1 million

The exact amount that can be credited to the Stanback fortune can obviously be debated. What is impossible to dispute is that Fred Stanback’s peculiar priorities have totally and conspicuously dominated the FFTC’s charitable contributions. The anti-people advocate quietly became one of America’s most generous anti-energy donors and might be the biggest of them all.

PDF hyperlink to full report

Endnotes

[i] Tanfani, Joseph. “Sessions’ allies on opposition to immigration have their roots in population control efforts.” Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2017. Accessed March 25, 2026. https://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-trailguide-updates-201701-htmlstory.html#sessions-allies-on-opposition-to-immigration-have-their-roots-in-population-control-efforts

[ii] Crocker, Brittany. “Headache powder billionaire donates big to small group creating migraines for TVA.” Knoxville News. April 6, 2018. Accessed February 25, 2026. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2018/04/06/tva-target-group-funded-headache-powder-billionaire-fred-stanback/461636002/

[iii] Crocker, Brittany. “Headache powder billionaire donates big to small group creating migraines for TVA.” Knoxville News. April 6, 2018. Accessed February 25, 2026. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2018/04/06/tva-target-group-funded-headache-powder-billionaire-fred-stanback/461636002/

[iv] Crocker, Brittany. “Headache powder billionaire donates big to small group creating migraines for TVA.” Knoxville News. April 6, 2018. Accessed February 25, 2026. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2018/04/06/tva-target-group-funded-headache-powder-billionaire-fred-stanback/461636002/

[v] Rocky Mountain Institute annual reports. Accessed March 25, 2026.

https://rmi.org/annual-report-2025/

https://rmi.org/annual-report-2024/

https://rmi.org/annual-report-2023/

https://rmi.org/annual-report-2022/

https://rmi.org/annual-report-2021/

https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/RMI-Annual-Report-2020.pdf

https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/RMI-Annual-Report-2019-Digital.pdf

https://d231jw5ce53gcq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RMI_Annual_Report_2016-2017_web.pdf

https://rmi.org.cn/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2014-2015-Annual-Report.pdf

https://rmi.org.cn/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2013-2014-Annual-Report.pdf

https://rmi.org.cn/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2012-2013-Annual-Report.pdf

[vi] Center for Biological Diversity | Annual Report 2014. Accessed March 25, 2026. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/publications/reports/AnnualRpt2014.pdf

[vii] Financials: “The Generosity of Our Region.” Foundation for the Carolinas. Accessed March 24, 2026. https://www.fftc.org/financials

[viii] Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted March 25, 2026.

[ix] Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted March 25, 2026.

[x] Foundation For The Carolinas. (EIN: 56-6047886). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 6, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/566047886/202543219349306689/full

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-fred-stanback/